July, 30 2024, 03:37pm EDT
![Fight for the Future](https://assets.rbl.ms/32012623/origin.jpg)
KOSA is advancing in the Senate. It still makes kids less safe.
The controversial Kids Online Safety Act passed out of the Senate today by a vote of 91-3. As the vote was taking place, a group of human rights, LGBTQ+, and civil liberties experts held a virtual press conference to discuss the longstanding issues with the bill, how passing it would be a major handout to Big Tech, and why the House must reject it.
You can watch the press conference in full at this link or below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwufHSTjdgE
Here a sampling of important quotes given during the press conference:
“The fact of the matter is, young people are naturally curious and taking away potentially educational resources limits their learning and can actually endanger them.” –Jenna Leventoff, Senior Policy Counsel at American Civil Liberties Union
“I think some of this is just based on hoping or believing that the enforcement of a speech law will be done by the good guys. And that’s we’ve just never seen that be the case. And that’s why it’s better to stick by our First Amendment values.” –Joe Mullin, Senior Policy Analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation
“I’m really particularly concerned about the impact on youth in states that are already living under abortion bans or living in the 25 States that have bans on gender and care. I think you’re just gonna see that kind of censorship get much worse.” –Mandy Salley, Chief Operating Officer at Woodhull Freedom Foundation
“I’ve literally had legislators tell me to my face that they would love to see our website taken off the Internet because they don’t want people to have the kinds of vital community resources that we provide.” –Dara Adkison, Executive Director of TransOhio
“We need legislation that addresses the harm of big tech. And still lets young people fight for the type of world that they actually want to grow up in.” –Evan Greer, Director at Fight for the Future
Senator Ron Wyden (OR) also sent in this quote to be read during the press conference:
“Everyone agrees tech companies need to be held accountable, and Congress needs to do more to keep kids safe online. But that shouldn’t mean making some kids safer while putting others in harms’ way. I appreciate the intent of KOSA, and support restrictions on harmful design elements, along with new privacy protections for teenagers. At the same time, I implore my colleagues in the House to listen to the LGBTQ+ teens and the folks on the call today. It is not too late to do more to ensure that KOSA can’t be misused by MAGA politicians who are waging a dangerous and retrograde culture war. It’s not too late to make commonsense changes that ensure KOSA can’t be used to scare platforms away from responsible use of privacy protecting technologies like encryption or anonymous accounts. I hope Congress can work together to pass legislation to make ALL kids safer online.”
The grassroots human rights coalition opposing KOSA will redouble our efforts to stop it in the House, where younger progressives like Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rep Maxwell Frost have already come out against it.
Additional resources about the opposition to KOSA:
- See Fight for the Future’s statement on KOSA advancing HERE.
- View our Tuesday, July 30 12 pm ET press conference on KOSA advancing HERE. More info on speakers, including bios, below.
- See a letter from hundreds of parents of trans kids opposing KOSA here: TransParentsLetter.com
- And read this in-depth piece lifting up the voices of LGBTQ youth who have led the opposition to KOSA.
- See photos of LGBTQ youth opposing KOSA at Pride Events here.
- See a full list of organizations opposing KOSA at StopKOSA.com, a tool that hundreds of thousands of people have used to contact their legislators opposing the bill.
Fight for the Future is a group of artists, engineers, activists, and technologists who have been behind the largest online protests in human history, channeling Internet outrage into political power to win public interest victories previously thought to be impossible. We fight for a future where technology liberates -- not oppresses -- us.
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On Medicare's Birthday, A State-by-State Look at Trump's Threat to Seniors
"Trump's Project 2025 agenda will take us backward and leave more Americans sick, uninsured, and burdened with crushing medical debt."
Jul 30, 2024
Congressional Democrats marked Medicare's 59th anniversary on Tuesday by releasing a tool showing the potential district-by-district impact of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's proposal to roll back the Inflation Reduction Act, a law that
capped insulin costs for seniors at $35 a month.
The new tool, produced by Democrats on the House Budget Committee, allows users to plug in their address, ZIP code, or district to view how a repeal of the 2022 law would affect the costs of insulin and other medications.
In Pennsylvania, for instance, "830,000 seniors and people with disabilities in Pennsylvania" would have to "pay an average of $470 more every year for prescription drugs" if Trump and the right-wing groups behind Project 2025 get their way.
Project 2025's sprawling policy document—which at least 140 former Trump administration officials helped craft—calls for the "repeal of massive spending bills like the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)."
"These programs are lifelines for millions of Americans, but the Trump-Vance ticket and their extreme allies threaten to cut funding."
Nationwide, Democrats on the House budget panel estimate that a repeal of the IRA would raise drug costs for at least 18 million seniors.
Project 2025 would also "make Medicare Advantage the default enrollment option" for seniors—a step toward the
total privatization of Medicare.
"For 59 years, Medicare and Medicaid have served as a critical lifeline for seniors, families, children, Americans with disabilities, and so many others," Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), ranking member of the House Budget Committee, said in a statement Tuesday. "Unfortunately, extreme MAGA Republicans have a different, darker vision for our healthcare system."
"Trump's Project 2025 agenda would repeal the lifesaving provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act, raise premiums on seniors, and risk their access to doctors and services under Medicare," Boyle continued. "House Republicans' budget plans show they are 100% on board with Trump's Project 2025 agenda, which will give Big Pharma a windfall while putting the tens of millions of Americans who get their health coverage through Medicare, Medicaid, and the [Affordable Care Act] on the chopping block."
"Make no mistake," he added, "Trump's Project 2025 agenda will take us backward and leave more Americans sick, uninsured, and burdened with crushing medical debt."
Since President Joe Biden signed it into law, Trump has repeatedly assailed the IRA, calling it a "mammoth socialist" law and signaling that he would work to dismantle it should he win another four years in the White House.
While Trump and Republican lawmakers have postured as defenders of Medicare and Social Security—the GOP's 2024 platform vows to "fight for and protect Social Security and Medicare with no cuts"—their actions while in positions of power belie their rhetoric.
Trump proposed major cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid programs during each of his first four years in the White House, and a congressional panel comprised of three-quarters of the House Republican caucus released a budget blueprint last year that called for raising the retirement age—which would cut Social Security benefits across the board.
As recently as March, Trump declared in an interview that "there is a lot you can do... in terms of cutting" programs like Social Security and Medicare. The former president later tried to walk back the comments.
Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), Trump's running mate, once described Social Security and Medicare benefits as "the biggest roadblocks to any kind of real fiscal sanity."
"These programs are lifelines for millions of Americans, but the Trump-Vance ticket and their extreme allies threaten to cut funding—just like Trump proposed every year of his presidency—and undo the Biden-Harris administration's work to lower prescription drug costs for seniors," Alex Floyd, rapid response director for the Democratic National Committee, said Tuesday. "Trump and Vance's Project 2025 agenda to leave our seniors high and dry is destructive, extreme, and deeply unpopular—which the American people will make clear when they reject it in November."
Ammar Moussa, a spokesperson for Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign, echoed that sentiment, calling Trump "the biggest threat to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security since their inception."
"He tried cutting Social Security and Medicare every single year he was in office," Moussa said Tuesday. "There is only one candidate in this race who will protect and expand earned benefits programs that millions of Americans rely on—Vice President Harris."
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Far-Right Israelis Mob Bases After Soldiers Arrested for Allegedly Raping Palestinian
Several Israeli lawmakers and one minister took part in the attempt to free the nine reservists, who were hailed as heroes by multiple Cabinet members.
Jul 30, 2024
Far-right Israelis including government officials stormed two military bases late on Monday, sparking clashes with troops and police over the arrest of Israel Defense Forces reservists who allegedly gang-raped a Palestinian prisoner.
Hundreds of protesters broke into the notorious Sde Teiman base in the Negev Desert in an attempt to stop the detention of nine reserve troops accused of sodomizing a Palestinian jailed there.
According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the victim is hospitalized with severe injuries and is unable to walk.
The nine suspects were then taken to the Beit Lid army base, which was also mobbed by at least dozens of demonstrators.
Base invaders included armed and masked members of Force 100, the military unit tasked with guarding prisoners at Sde Teiman. One of the nine arrested soldiers is reportedly a major in Force 100.
High-ranking Israeli government officials also took part in Monday's riots, including Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu of the Otzma Yehudit, or Jewish Power, party. Members of the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, including Yitzhak Kroizer and Limor Son Har-Melech (Otzma Yehudit), Zvi Sukkot (Religious Zionism), and Tally Gotliv (Likud), were also present.
"The military advocate general is a criminal. The people of Israel will fight against enemies from outside and enemies from within," Har-Melech said during the protest.
Journalists including a woman who works for the state broadcaster Kansaid they were attacked while covering the riot.
Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid), the Israeli opposition leader, called for the arrest and imprisonment of Knesset members who took part in invasions.
"This is not a riot, this is an attempted coup by an armed militia against a weak prime minister who is unable to control his government," Lapid said on social media.
"We are not on the brink of the abyss, we are in the abyss. All red lines were crossed today," he added. "MKs and ministers who participate in the invasion of violent militias into military bases are a message to the state of Israel: They are done with democracy, they are done with the rule of law."
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (Likud) urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud) to investigate allegations that National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (Otzma Yehudit) thwarted police intervention against the rioters.
"Backing and active participation of elected officials in riots at army bases, while issuing harsh statements against senior army officers, is a severe and extremely dangerous phenomenon that harms security, social cohesiveness, and Israel's international reputation," Gallant said.
Netanyahu said he "strongly condemns the break-in."
Ben-Gvir, on the other hand, condemned what he called the "shameful" detention of the nine soldiers, whom he described as "our best heroes."
He acknowledged that conditions inside Israeli prisons "have indeed worsened," adding, "I am proud of that."
Echoing Ben-Gvir, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionism) called the nine detained reservists "heroic warriors."
In a heated Knesset exchange, Ahmad Tibi of the Arab Movement for Renewal party asked Likud MK Hanoch Milwidsky if raping Palestinian prisoners is "legitimate."
"Yes! If he is a Nukhba everything is legitimate to do him!" Milwidsky thundered, referring to an elite Hamas commando unit.
MK Ahmad Tibi (TA'AL): To insert a stick in a person's rectum, is that legitimate???
MK Hanoch Milwidsky (Likud): Yes! If he is a Nukhba everything is legitimate to do him!
Some of you have probably already heard about the events in Sde Teiman concentration camp today: MPs came… pic.twitter.com/JynQZOqnDH
— B.M. (@ireallyhateyou) July 29, 2024
Erez Tadmor, a former speechwriter for Netanyahu,
claimed that Sde Teiman prisoners may have raped themselves.
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel denounced the alleged rape of the Palestinian prisoner in Sde Teiman.
"Since the beginning of the war, we claimed that the Sde Teiman was operating as an 'ex-territory', and the soldiers stationed there were acting outside any law—first in their treatment of detainees, and now towards military law enforcement agents," the group said.
"Instead of absolute condemnation, some Israeli far-right leaders have rallied to support the suspects of abuse, which is emblematic of the root causes that enable such abuse to happen in the first place," the group added.
Orit Sulitzeanu, executive director of the Association of Rape Crises Centers in Israel, toldHaaretz she is "shocked" by the Sde Teiman rape allegation.
"There will never be any circumstances that would justify the use of this sickening practice, not even against the worst of our enemies," he said. "Sexual harm and sexual abuse are serious crimes and we must not remain silent when they happen."
Former prisoners including children and Israeli whistleblowers at Sde Teiman—often called "Israel's Guantánamo Bay"—have described rampant torture and abuse at the facility, which is used to imprison Palestinians captured in the Gaza Strip. According to their testimonies, prisoners have been raped, electrocuted, mauled by dogs, burned with cigarettes, severely beaten, starved, and subjected to 24-hour shackling sometimes leading to amputations.
The New York Timesreported last month that one former Sde Teiman prisoner said he was forced to "sit on something like a hot metal stick and it felt like fire," and that another detainee "died after they put the electric stick" up his anus.
IDF officials toldHaaretz last month that the IDF is investigating the in-custody deaths of dozens of detainees, including 36 who died or were killed at Sde Teiman since October.
Palestinians formerly held at Sde Teiman said groups of 10-20 Israeli civilians were allowed to record torture sessions in which the men, stripped nearly naked, were beaten with metal batons, electrocuted, and had hot water poured over their heads. The ex-prisoners said some of the Israelis laughed while filming their torture.
On Tuesday, Israel's High Court of Justice said it will hold a second hearing on August 7 regarding a petition seeking to close Sde Teiman over alleged torture and abuse committed there, TheTimes of Israelreported.
Also on Tuesday in a separate case from the nine arrests, an IDF reservist identified as Staff Sgt. Yisrael Zakaria Hajbi was indicted for allegedly using "severe violence against the detainees he was entrusted with guarding" at Sde Teiman and filming the abuse.
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Fears of Full-Scale War With Lebanon Rise After Israel Bombs Beirut
One group responded to Israel's bombing of "a densely populated civilian area in Beirut" by urging governments to "condemn this dangerous escalation and immediately suspend arms sales to Israel."
Jul 30, 2024
This is a developing story… Please check back for possible updates...
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed Tuesday that it "carried out a targeted strike in Beirut," elevating fears of an all-out war with Lebanon or a larger regional conflict as Israel continues a monthslong assault on the Gaza Strip.
Israel has blamed Hezbollah, a militia and political party in Lebanon, for the recent rocket attack on a soccer field in Majdal Shams, a town in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Hezbollah has denied responsibility.
The IDF said on social media that its strike in the Lebanese capital targeted an unnamed "commander responsible for the murder of the children in Majdal Shams and the killing of numerous additional Israeli civilians."
BREAKING NEWS: The Israeli army has launched a "precision strike" on Beirut, targeting a Hezbollah commander. This operation comes in retaliation for an attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday. pic.twitter.com/CI0ZOW04Lg
— Mondoweiss (@Mondoweiss) July 30, 2024
Reutersreported that "a senior Lebanese security source said a senior Hezbollah commander had been the target of the air strike and his fate remained unclear."
The Israeli strike "targeted the area around Hezbollah's Shura Council in the Haret Hreik neighborhood of the capital," Reuters added, citing Lebanon's state-run national news agency.
Since the Israeli assault on Gaza began over the Hamas-led October 7 attack, cross-border strikes have killed hundreds of Hezbollah fighters and approximately 100 civilians.
The Peace & Justice Project—founded by Jeremy Corbyn, an Independent member of the United Kingdom's Parliament—said Tuesday that "in the last few moments, Israel has bombed a densely populated civilian area in Beirut. The U.K. and U.S. governments must condemn this dangerous escalation and immediately suspend arms sales to Israel."
Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), urged U.S. President Joe Biden—who has enabled the Israeli assault on Gaza with diplomatic and weapons support—to put pressure on Israel to prevent war with Lebanon.
"In the days after October 7, President Biden had a message for Hezbollah: 'Don't.' Now it's time for Biden to send the same message to Israel: Don't launch a new war in Lebanon, don't keep evading a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, don't assume American support if you start a regional war," she said. "The U.S. government should be doing everything it can to stop the escalation of the conflict and the only way to accomplish that is to exert enough pressure on Israel to reach a permanent cease-fire in Gaza."
Like DAWN's leader, Win Without War executive director Sara Haghdoosti also connected the airstrike to peace in Gaza.
"The latest round of strikes between the Israeli military and Hezbollah puts the region at the edge of a major war," Haghdoosti warned. "Win Without War is alarmed by the escalation over the last several days. We call on the Biden administration to redouble diplomatic efforts to calm tensions and prevent further violence."
"A cease-fire in Gaza remains the most crucial step in ending this devastating cycle of violence," she added. "We urge the Biden administration to use all the leverage at its disposal to secure a deal that returns hostages held in Gaza, ends the killing and horrific humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and averts a regional war."
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